Internship programme - vacancies

CTA is currently running an internship programme. It is aimed at students or young graduates who wish to seize the opportunity to start their working lives in a true working environment for their own benefit and that of the Centre. Interns are involved in the work of the Department in which they are placed and are given tasks related to their studies. They work under the supervision of a CTA staff member. The duration of an internship is 6 months renewable once only.

CTA offers:
- A wide variety of activities in which you will actively participate.
- An international and multi cultural work environment (over 40 staff members from EU and ACP member countries).
- The opportunity to use and further develop your skills in various fascinating sectors
- An internship contract for a duration of 3-6 months, renewable once only (maximum 12 months); please note there is no possibility of recruitment at CTA after the internship.
- A monthly allocation in line with a scale established by CTA, accident and emergency sickness coverage and support in finding lodging.

Interns will work within the framework of the following programmes/activities:


- Economy of agricultural development
- Information Technologies (IT) and IT management
- Media (video, radio, blogs) as well as public relations
- Training
- Seminars and study visits

CTA uses the following criteria when considering applications:

- You must be between 20 - 30 years
- You should be enrolled at a university or college of higher education or be a young graduate with a maximum professional experience of 2 years
- You should have a good knowledge of ICT applications
- You should be fluent in French or English and have a good knowledge of the other language
- You should be a citizen of a member state of the European Union or of the ACP group (Africa, Caribbean, and Pacific)
- You should be curious, communicative and very motivated
- Education and Qualifications: information science and/or communication science, social science, agricultural science, development economy, marketing, information technologies.

Interships are organised at the CTA headquarters in Wageningen, The Netherlands and at the CTA Brussels office.

Further information on the intern positions available can be found here.

If you are interested, please send us:

- Your curriculum vitae and covering letter
- Your dates of availability
- 2 letters of recommendation and/or references.

The information and documents should be sent to internship[at]cta.int

Expression of Interest to Tender

CTA Intranet and Website Requirements

1 Background
CTA is managing and developing a range of content rich environments to better serve the ever-changing information needs of all stakeholders in ACP agricultural and rural development. These environments – print, CDs, radio, TV, websites with RSS feeds, online communication and collaboration platforms like blogs and wikis, - contain information on projects, outputs, organizations, experts and news and events, radio packages, Q&A, etc.

2 Problem Statement
CTA’s internal information systems and databases are not fully integrated and therefore affect the Centre’s capacity to better analyse its programmes and project outcomes. Excepting some project and financial data, much of CTA's information is currently not residing in structured and relational databases. On the other hand, CTA’s corporate web site and thematic portals are managed separately as different projects using different content management systems. Moreover, the corporate web site is a “mashup” of static pages and blogs, featuring only limited content from the thematic portals using RSS. While simple searching across the cta.int domain name is possible using a Google search, the full range of CTA products, services and outputs can not be queried in a user-friendly search.

3 Beneficiaries
CTA; ACP partners; Worldwide

4 Overall Objective
To better serve the ever-changing information and communication needs of all stakeholders in ACP agricultural and rural development

5 Project Purpose
Development and implementation of an integrated CTA information management and knowledge sharing environment

6 Expected Results
1. CTA quality (internal) information residing in structured relational data repository

2. Content management system (CMS) developed for corporate web site with greater integration with thematic portals

3. Web based dissemination of information products and outputs optimised

4. Online collaboration and interaction facilitated

5. Optimised needs assessments for information management and analysis

7 Activities
1. Analyse and organise CTA internal datasets

2. Deploy an integrated CMS and user management for CTA corporate web site

3. Implement a federated search engine for full range of CTA web sites and portals

4. Implement a collaborative and interactive environment that integrates seamlessly with the CMS

5. Integrate questionnaire, data management and reporting facilities

8 The Lots
To achieve the above requirements two lots are available for tender:

Lot 1: the provision of an intranet for CTA to fulfil internal Information and communication requirements [expression of interest form here ]

Lot 2: the enhancement of CTA’s corporate web presence for promoting and disseminating information from the thematic portals and other sites and the sharing and exchange of information [expression of interest form here ]

If you are interested, please fill out and return the appropriate form before January 21, 2008 to:

M. J.C. Burguet
Head, Admin. Services, Budget and Human Resources Development,
CTA
Po Box 380
6700 AJ Wageningen,
The Netherlands.

Fax: +31 317 467 178
e-mail: burguet@cta.int

CTA Partner Organisations around the Globe - Community Map

View Larger Map

Is your organisation missing on the map? Interested in collaborating in the development of the map?
If yes, please send an e-mail to cta.space[at]gmail.com

Last call: Consultancy assignments

Last call for national consultants and regional coordinator - East Africa
Those who have already applied need not re-apply.

The Technical Centre for Rural and Agricultural Cooperation (CTA) urgently requires expressions of interest from nationals of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) and European Union (EU) states for the assignments to conduct an assessment of agricultural information needs for CTA's products and services in ACP East Africa (English & French speaking)

Eleven (11) national consultants and one (1) regional coordinator are required to undertake the assignment in: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, Seychelles, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda (English speaking) and Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Madagascar (French speaking). N.B. Eritrea and Rwanda already covered under previous studies.

Further details here.

Closing date 7 January 2008.

Briefing on Aid for Trade

In order to improve information sharing and promote networking, CTA, the EC-DG Development, the EU Presidency, the ACP Secretariat, Euforic, Concord and IPS organise bimonthly briefings on key issues and challenges for rural development in the context of EU/ACP cooperation. The third briefing will be held on 5th December 2007, from 8h30 to 12h30 (European Commission, Building A. Borschette, Room 4D), to discuss: Can aid fix trade? The new Aid for Trade Agenda in the context of ACP countries

The Briefing will be organised in two Panels:

Panel 1 - Setting the scene. Where are we in the Aid for Trade (AfT) agenda? What are the preconditions to make Aid for trade an effective tool for assisting ACP countries to integrate into the multilateral system and fully benefit from trade liberalisation? This session will examine the challenges of Aid for trade in helping the ACP countries to benefit from liberalized trade and increased market access associated with the completion of the Doha Round by reviewing past and current initiatives.

Panel 2 - Trade-related assistance: institutional architecture and financial mobilisation of Aid for Trade. How can Aid for Trade be implemented at the national and regional level? This session will examine existing financial resources and, more significantly, the criteria on which basis foresee additional resource mobilisation and funding mechanisms for the AfT agenda at ACP national and regional levels, from an ACP perspective. Existing national and regional AfT programmes will be discussed, along with the involvement of stakeholders - farmer’s organisations, private sector - in the design, monitoring and evaluation of AfT initiatives.
http://brusselsbriefings.net/

• Full programme

Radio Scriptwriting Competition

African Farmers’ Strategies for Coping with Climate Change Radio Scriptwriting Competition - Africa

Deadline Date
March 15, 2008

Developing Countries Farm Radio Network (DCFRN) and Technical Center for Agricultural Cooperation (CTA) invite African scriptwriters to participate in the African Farmers’ Strategies for Coping with Climate Change scriptwriting competition. The competition is open to African radio organisations, including broadcasters, production organisations, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) with a radio project and farmers’ associations with a radio show. Writers are invited to submit a radio script on one of the following themes related to climate change:

water and soil management
cropping strategies emphasisng drought-resistant plants
livestock management practices
fisheries and agroforestry
other original topics related to coping with climate change and not listed above

To assist radio practitioners with producing the radio scripts, a climate change resource kit, guide to writing radio scripts, and coaching and mentoring on scriptwriting is available through the competition website. Participants can use any of the following script formats: interviews, spots, discussion between two hosts, drama (with different characters), or a story (told by one or two narrators). Examples of the different script formats can be found on the competition website. Participants are encouraged to include an audio file with their script; however, this is not a requirement. Edirol R-09 digital audio recorders will be awarded to the top 15 radio scriptwriters.

Application Information
The script is to be prepared with input from local people (especially farmers). It must be between 500-2000 words, include background notes about the topic and production notes for broadcasters, and include references to information sources used to prepare the script (i.e. farmers, agricultural institutions, NGOs, documents, etc.).

The scripts will be reviewed by an international panel of judges. The top 15 entries will receive high quality digital audio recorders. The winners will be announced in May 2008 and will be profiled on the competition website. The winning scripts will be published and distributed by CTA and DCFRN. All entrants will receive feedback on their scripts.
Entries must be received no later than March 15, 2008.

Contact:
Sarah Bel
CTA’s Communications Officer - radio@cta.int